Sirius Chamber Ensemble: Music Tales

When: On 22-Apr-17, at 6 pm

Where: Christ Church Lavender Bay, Corner of Walker and Lavender Streets, North Sydney

Sirius Chamber Ensemble

Sirius Chamber Ensemble has a line-up of guest artists to perform an eclectic program intertwining music and spoken narrative. They include actor Nigel Turner-Carroll, who will be performing in the Music for Gracious Living by American composer David Lang; Sydney-based composer Dr Paul Smith, who will be reciting Nordic Sagas to accompany his composition The Death of Baldr written for Sirius (2014); and soprano Taryn Srhoj, who will be performing two works on the program, Matilda by Joseph Giovinazzo and Abschied von der Erde by Franz Schubert.

Nigel Turner-Carroll, a graduate from NIDA and award-winning director, was nominated in the 2012 and 2013 Sydney Theatre Awards for The Greening of Grace and The Motherfu#$er With the Hat and a recipient of Glug Award for Performer On The Way 2013. Other plays Nigel has appeared in include Skylight, Step, The Birthday Boys, Thank you For Being a Friend.

Young Artist with Pacific Opera in 2011 and 2012, Taryn Srhoj studied at The University of Auckland School of Music, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Music majoring in Voice in 2008. She also holds an AMusA in piano. Based in Sydney, Taryn has been a soloist in the Willoughby Symphony Grand Opera Gala and recieved the Q Lab Artists in Residence Programme at the Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre. She has performed the role of Musetta in La Boheme with the Western Sydney Opera Company, Michaela in Carmen with Symphony Central Coast, Marie Antoinette for Blush Opera’s production Ladies Who Brunch in the Adelaide Fringe Festival and the role of Cora in the world premiere and subsequent tour of Fancy Me Dead by Australian composer Dr Paul Smith. Taryn has often performed with Sirius Chamber Ensemble, most notably the Alan Holley song cycle Borneo Songs and Berg’s Sieben Fruhe Lieder .

Dr Paul Smith is a lecturer in music at the University of New England. He specialises in chamber music and opera. In 2016, his second chamber opera, The Spider and the Runaway Plum Blossom, was premiered in Singapore by the group Chamber Sounds. In late 2016, he composed an original piano score and performed as part of a newly devised theatre work based on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein produced by the Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre. His keyboard works have been recorded and released by Italian pianist Antonietta Loffredo and she will premiere his keyboard duo, Holding Masks, in Como, Italy next month. During 2017, Paul has received three grants to workshop a new opera called Chop Chef, written in collaboration with writer, Julie Koh, which satirises reality tv food competitions. He holds a doctorate from Western Sydney University and is co-artistic director of Sydney-based Blush Opera.

The programme: David Lang – Music for Gracious Living for actor and string quartet/ Franz Schubert – Abscheid von der Erde/ Joseph Giovinazzo – Matilda for narrator and wind quartet/ Andrew Batterham – Eden for narrator and solo flute/ Paul Smith – The Death of Baldr for flute, clarinet, bassoon, french horn, cello and piano